Part 7 ➤ Enjoying the Artist’s Life 320 Illuminating Your Personal Life Stationery, letterheads, postcards, and personal or business cards are great ways to decorate your world with your drawings. Original art for black-and-white reproduction works well when it is reduced about 50 per- cent, so model your original according to what you have planned. Make a rough design to show placement of art and type, then look at your choices of type style. You can offer to make a set of whatever you create for a friend or family member as a most personal gift. Greeting cards and holiday greetings and invitations to parties are other projects you can try with your own images. Even without a computer and scanner, you can make up a nice card front and have good black-and-white or color copies made at your local 24-hour printer to Illustrate a story—yours or someone else’s—with drawings. Here are a few to inspire you. 321 Chapter 24 ➤ Decorate Your World fold into cards. Then, you can add your own handwritten greeting or you can write it out in a calligraphic hand on the art and make it part of the card. If you do have a computer and scanner, you can read about using it with your own images in Chapter 25, “Express Yourself.” Reinventing Your World As you go on with the reinvention of your world, why not start with the redecoration of your castle? Almost any corner of your house can take a little well-placed illumination, such as a flower here or there to cheer you during the winter, a bit of whimsy for a child’s room, and in the kitchen, the easiest of all, an arrangement of fruit that never goes bad. But you don’t have to stop there when it comes to redecoration. Any surface can be the object of your newfound drawing skills, as you’ll discover in this section. Cabinets and Furniture You can use your drawings as the basis for painting on cabinet doors or the drawer fronts of a dresser that needs help. For your first project, here are some simple steps you can follow. 1. Pick a simple stem and bloom or a length of vine with some leaves. 2. Make a photocopy of the drawing you intend to use and es- tablish a color scheme with colored pencils. Keep it fairly simple. 3. Buy yourself enough colors in acrylic paint to mix the colors that you will need. If you’d like, look ahead to the section in Chapter 25 on color for some help. 4. You can transfer your drawing to a cabinet or drawer front by blackening the back of a copy of the drawing with your soft- est pencil and then taping it carefully and drawing over your drawing lines. The soft pencil acts like carbon paper (remem- ber carbon paper?) and your outline is there on the surface, ready to paint. This will work for several passes, and then you might have to reapply the pencil or finish with another copy of your drawing. You’re sure to be pleased with the new look in your kitchen or spare room, or on your bathroom cupboard or old dresser. Ceilings, Walls, and Floors, but No Driveways You can apply this same procedure to a larger surface, either in a repeat pattern, such as a stenciled border around the top of a room, or you could get wild and paint a border on a floor that looks dull. Hey, you can paint the whole floor; it’s your castle. Artist’s Sketchbook Calligraphic writing is handwrit- ing in a particular style, or font, often with a wedge-tipped pen called a calligraphic pen. Chancery cursive, like old manuscript text, or Old English, more elaborate and stylized, are two styles you can try from a book or your word- processing software. You can type out your text, choose the font and size, and print it out as a guide, or you can simply use a calligraphy pen in your own handwriting for a nice effect. Back to the Drawing Board Be sure to practice how you will paint in the petals and leaves on a sample before you start on the furniture. Practice, as always, makes perfect, which is what you’re after when you get to the real thing. Part 7 ➤ Enjoying the Artist’s Life 322 For repeated use, a stencil will be easier in the long run. You can use it for the basic shapes and fill the rest in freehand, looking at your sample as a reference. To cut a stencil you will need some stiff paper, preferably stencil paper, and a sharp Exacto or mat knife. 1. Draw your design on the paper from your original sketch. 2. Remember that in a stencil the holes will fall out, so you probably need to redraw the parts of the drawing so they are separate. (Remember that stencils use negative space. A stencil of a chair would be a series of disconnected “holes” which wouldn’t hold to- gether, so a separate stencil is required for each part of the chair.) A stencil can simplify a drawing. Expanded Uses for Your Skills As your confidence in drawing increases, you may want to take a look at still more poten- tial uses. If you have a lifelong love of fashion, for example, you might want to try some clothing drawings. Or, if you’re half as witty as we are, maybe a cartoon or bit of visual po- litical satire will be just the thing. There’s plenty of raw material, after all (pun intended). Maybe character studies appeal to you. Or, if it’s a flight of fantasy that does it for you, whatever it is, give it a try. There are books specific to each of these expanded uses, and many more. Look carefully to make sure that the book really shows you things you want to know and is not just a show- case for the artist/author. You’ll find some of our suggestions in Appendix B, “Resources for Learning to Draw.” Focus on Fashion Details, stylization, and stretched proportion are the differences between drawings of people and fashion drawings, along with the fact that while you draw for yourself, fashion draw- ings are drawn for use commercially. You get paid to do them! If this type of drawing interests you, begin by studying the fashion drawings in newspapers and magazines to develop an eye for the kind of style that is “in” at the moment, the de- tails that look contemporary, and the degree of “distortion” in the proportion. Evaluate proportion by measuring by the number of heads in the total body height as you did in 323 Chapter 24 ➤ Decorate Your World Chapter 21, “The Human Body and Its Extremities.” When you’re doing fashion drawing, there are more “heads” in the total height, that’s all—mostly in the legs, for that leggy model look. Practice until you develop a style that pleases you. Fashion isn’t just about clothing, either—look at the detail in this fantasy dragon, just perfect to be embroidered on a cou- ture runway gown. Cartoons: Humor or Opinion? How funny are you? Are you an opinionated type? You might be a cartoonist in disguise. Cartoons are great drawing practice, and you don’t have to have a lot of skill, as many of today’s cartoons reveal. The trick with humorous cartoons like comic strips is consistency, making your characters look the same from frame to frame. With political cartoons and caricatures, it’s a matter of discerning your subject’s most prominent feature and then exaggerating it for recognition. Studying the masters can help you see how this is done—from George W. Bush’s ears to Al Gore’s hairline. That Twisted Look: Caricatures If you do have an eye for facial features and how to push them or exaggerate them, draw- ing caricatures is a possibility. You can look forward to a future at county fairs, or you could move to Paris and set up along the Seine. Further Out: Your Fantasies There is nothing that, with a twist of imagination, cannot become something else. —William Carlos Williams Some of us are just not content with reality. Why, after all, should reality be the only op- tion? Your fantasies or fantasy worlds are places you can go with your drawings. Just don’t forget your sketchbook. Part 7 ➤ Enjoying the Artist’s Life Your Sketchbook Page Try your hand at practicing the exercises you’ve learned in this chapter. 325 Chapter 24 ➤ Decorate Your World The Least You Need to Know ➤ Now that you can draw, why live in a world without your own personal touch? ➤ Illustrations, developed from drawings or done for a specific purpose, can decorate, explain, expand, reflect, or accompany anything. ➤ Presents and cards are among the uses for your drawings. ➤ Decorate your house and world, but do yourself a favor and stay away from the driveways. ➤ Try your hand at expanded uses for your drawing skills as your own interests and tastes lead you, but do some real drawing, too. Chapter 25 Express Yourself In This Chapter ➤ The wonderful world of color ➤ Care and feeding of your drawings ➤ Art enters the digital age ➤ Arty computer programs and classes Art is a form of supremely delicate awareness, meaning at oneness, the state of being at one with the object. —D.H. Lawrence So, you have amassed quite a collection of drawings by now. Maybe you’re getting interested in trying something a little more involved. Some images of your own might be popping into your minds’ eye … or eye’s mind (we never get those two straight). Now you can begin to consider the wide range of materials and techniques to make paint- ings or colored drawings. There are endless ways to infuse your work with your own person- ality and particular way of seeing the world, and color is one of the more interesting ones. In addition, we’ll show you how to care for your work, including framing options. And we’ll take a quick look at computer art programs as well. The process, not the end work, is the most important thing for the artist. —Georgia O’Keeffe Moving Into the Realm of Color There is nothing—no color, no emotion, no idea—that the true artist cannot find a form to express. —Georgia O’Keeffe Part 7 ➤ Enjoying the Artist’s Life 328 Do you remember the first time you saw a color television? Do you remember that Walt Disney’s “The Wonderful World of Color” was originally created to showcase material for color television? It’s hard to imagine now, but the move from black and white to color tele- vision was a very big deal back in the late ’50s. And in 1939, when Judy Garland first opened the door of her Kansas farmhouse into the Land of Oz, the color was a revelation— to her, to Toto, and to us. Moving into the realm of color in your drawing is a big deal, too. But never fear—we’re here to help, with suggestions for everything from materials to matting. Some Brief Words on Color I paint because color is significant. —Georgia O’Keeffe This is yet another pearl from O’Keeffe, and so it is. Each day of your life is filled with shapes and colors, the weather, the seasons, the places you go, and the things that you see, so add some of that color to your drawings. As with most parts of this book, a whole book could be written on color, and fortunately, many have been. Along with your own experimenting, it’s probably worthwhile to read and study a few of them. Before you jump, spend some time reading and looking at colored work that you like. Take a good look at color charts, in books and in art stores. Get familiar with the spectrum of colors: the burst of reds, the range of yellows, the forest of greens, the sea of blues, the wealth of purples. New Materials You Could Try Colored pencils and water-soluble colored pencils and crayons are a great and painless tran- sition into the world of color. After all, you’ve already gotten comfortable with a pencil, so adding color is easy! They mix and blend to make any color you can come up with. Other options in the field of color are ➤ Water-based crayons. ➤ Pastel pencils. ➤ Pastels. ➤ Oil pastels. ➤ Watercolors. ➤ Acrylic or gouache. ➤ Pen and colored inks. Each of these media has its own characteristics, advantages, and chal- lenges; practice will allow you to develop a feel for them. And, if you’re interested in learning about any of them in more detail, we’ve suggest- ed some books you might like in Appendix B, “Resources for Learning to Draw.” Back to the Drawing Board As you begin to look at colors, do yourself a favor and stay away from the pile of browns. You will find that in learning to mix col- ors you end up with plenty of them anyway. 329 Chapter 25 ➤ Express Yourself Into the Field of Color Buy yourself the largest set of colored pencils that you can afford. Is your birthday coming? Even if it’s not, no matter, get the big set anyway. Small sets have mostly bright primary colors and fewer subtle colors, and you’ll want to play with both. Primary colors are those that cannot be mixed from other colors: ➤ Red ➤ Yellow ➤ Blue Secondary colors are those that can be mixed from two primary colors. The secondary colors are ➤ Orange (made from red and yellow). ➤ Green (from yellow and blue). ➤ Purple (from blue and red). Tertiary colors are another step out on the color wheel, made from a primary and a second- ary color. They are a group of lovely muted shades and neutral colors that you’ll want to get to know. Colors across from each other on the color wheel are called complimentary colors; they work well with each other. If they are mixed, they make neutrals. Colors that compliment each other are ➤ Red and green. ➤ Blue and orange. ➤ Purple and yellow. This color wheel is in black and white, but you can use your imagination to visualize the colors. Blended colors are a mix of two or three colors or two complimentary colors—opposites on the color wheel. Earth tones and shadow colors are mixes of complimentary colors like purple, with a little yellow to soften it, or a brick red made with green. You will end up with plenty of browns and earth colors, and you can make various grays and blacks by combining four colors, ex- cluding yellow. . farmhouse into the Land of Oz, the color was a revelation— to her, to Toto, and to us. Moving into the realm of color in your drawing is a big deal, too. But never fear—we’re here to help, with. don’t have to have a lot of skill, as many of today’s cartoons reveal. The trick with humorous cartoons like comic strips is consistency, making your characters look the same from frame to frame. With. your local 24-hour printer to Illustrate a story—yours or someone else’s—with drawings. Here are a few to inspire you. 321 Chapter 24 ➤ Decorate Your World fold into cards. Then, you can add